The Great Phizzi Share
New physics-based enquiries delivered as part of the Great Science Share for Schools.
Published: 16 November 2022
This year, with support from The Ogden Trust, the Great Science Share for Schools (GSSfS) launched a new initiative to encourage children to ask physics questions and carry out physics enquiries. More than 900 schools took part in the Great Phizzi Share, reaching 43,000 young people!
The Great Phizzi Share included CPD and resources to support teachers to deliver guided physics enquiries to develop children’s working scientifically skills. The practical, purposeful physics enquiries showed how ideas in the curriculum could be linked to real-world contexts around sustainability and climate.
Children aged five to seven years old, took part in an observing over time enquiry to gather weather data to help them answer the question: How do we know our climate is changing? Young scientists gathered data over the seasons looking at how sun hours, temperature, rainfall and rain days changed from month to month. They compared their findings with historical data provided on research cards to notice similarities and differences.
“Children [5– 7] loved being involved in the longer guided enquiry and kept checking the weather stations”.
Older children (7–11-year-olds) explored how reflection of light can help tackle climate change. They measured how much light was reflected from different materials and then looked at using the most reflective materials to improve plant growth.
The final enquiry was carried out by 11–14-year-olds; they carried out Great Phizzi Share enquiries linked to the transparency of materials, choosing materials to use for growing plants indoors – they carried out a fair test to gather data to answer the perplexing question – How transparent is transparent?
Each enquiry comes with its own bespoke resource pack, designed for 5–14-year-olds, to develop working scientifically skills with a physics focus linked to the theme of Climate Action. The packs provide opportunities for observing over time, comparative testing and fair testing; and each includes teacher notes, a presentation and supporting resources. The enquiries have been designed to support young scientists in developing their skills and inspiring them to ask their own questions and think about further enquiries.
“The guided enquiries really helped with seeing how children are progressing with working scientifically skills across the school. Good to see progression between the phases. So useful for teachers to see what kind of recording/quality of conclusions are expected for their age children”.
The Great Science Share for Schools 2022 was the biggest yet, with over 300,000 young scientists sharing their questions, enquiries and findings with new audiences. “It was great that with the support of The Ogden Trust we were able to increase the number of enquiries linked to the physics curriculum,” says primary expert Amanda Poole who works with both the Trust and the GSSfS and developed Great Phizzi Share initiative and resources.
Schools: register now for the Great Science Share for Schools 2023 and access a wide range of resources to support science learning including Great Science Skills Starters, Great Science Ideas and Great Science People.
